After spend´ing several weeks shooting his fantasy-epic in town, director David Fincher does the city proud in his ambitious, big-screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story of a man who is born as an 80-year-old and gets younger as years go by.

Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Taraji P. Henson all turn in strong performances in what ends up being a mag´ical bit of storytelling. 2 hours 47 minutes.

• IF YOU ARE ... a fan of rock-solid acting, then you should go see ...

The big-screen adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer-winning (and Tony-winning, and Drama Desk Award-winning ...) stage play is an acting clinic, as it tells the story of a 1964 nun who, armed with nothing but suspicions of wrongdoing, guns for her parish priest.

Even if the film version isn't as gripping as it should be, seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep go toe-to-toe is a treat. 1 hour 44 minutes.

Samuel L. Jackson does his worst as the villain Octopus in the comics-inspired film 'The Spirit.'Read review | See showtimes »

The Spirit (PG-13)
0 stars, out of 4

The visual flair that Frank Miller brings to his adaptation of Will Eisner's seminal comics series is interesting, but with nothing else to fall back on -- no heart, no charm, no worth´while story -- the film ends up going belly-up quickly, a pointless and flaccid misfire.